Relocating
Financial and professional services firms continue to open offices along Flagler Drive and Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach and in downtown Boca Raton. The people they move face the same question: Palm Beach prices, or a compromise. Boca Islands is the third answer.
The arithmetic
Comparable new waterfront construction in Palm Beach commonly starts near $20 million. 252 SW 14th Place is offered at $6,000,000: a brand-new, architect-designed six-bedroom home on protected water with a dock, elevator and three-car garage, in a neighborhood where the grocer, the pharmacy and a dozen restaurants are a ten-minute walk.
The difference buys a great deal of flexibility for a family arriving from New York, Greenwich, San Francisco or Los Angeles: a second home retained in the north, a club membership, a boat, or simply a smaller mortgage. It also buys a house that is finished, rather than a renovation project.
The commute
Downtown West Palm Beach is about thirty-five minutes from Boca Islands by I-95, against traffic in the morning for most of the route. The Brightline station in downtown Boca Raton is about ten minutes away, with a roughly twenty-five-minute ride to West Palm Beach station on Flagler Drive and onward service to Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Orlando.
For a firm's Boca Raton office, the commute is a matter of minutes. Boca Raton Airport, for private aviation, is about fifteen minutes; Palm Beach International and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood about thirty each.
Daily life
The relocating executive often discovers that South Florida's most celebrated waterfront addresses are car-dependent. Boca Islands is the exception in east Boca: The Fresh Market and Walgreens are a five-minute walk, Publix and the restaurants along Camino Real and Federal Highway less than ten, and The Boca Raton, its Beach Club, Mizner Park and the public beach a short bicycle ride. There is no gate and no homeowners' association.
Independent schools within a short drive include Saint Andrew's School and Pine Crest School's Boca Raton campus. Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health, is in the center of the city.
Seeing it
Buyers visiting West Palm Beach for the day can see Boca Islands, both residences and the surrounding neighborhood in a morning, and be back at the office by lunch. Showings are arranged through Devin Kay at Douglas Elliman, who works regularly with relocation consultants and with the New York and California offices of the brokerage.
Brokers representing relocating buyers are welcome and compensated. Floor plans, surveys and a full photo set are available on request.
Private showings can be arranged on short notice, including early mornings and weekends.
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